Shaken and Stirred

On Friday night Shannon and I went to an Expressive Arts event in honour of Stephen Levine, the founder of ISIS. In going I hoped to connect with Paolo Knill, the provost of the European Graduate School about their program in Expressive Arts Coaching and Consulting. I'm really curious about the distinctions between the therapy program and the coaching program, and I wanted to ask about that.

I want to celebrate that I found the courage to walk up and introduce myself to Professor Knill. That was a real accomplishment for me because I am shy when it comes to those situations. So yay!

And I'm still sorting out what happened next. As we were chatting about the program, he asked me about my experience and suddenly said, "You should go into our doctoral program." He then explained that the doctoral candidates are taught exclusively by the founders of expressive arts therapy, that after one year I'd be qualified to teach MAs and that this would be professionally one of the highest credentials available in my field. He whisked me off to Stephen Levine to make sure we connected and that he knew who I was. Stephen was also incredible encouraging and shared his contact information saying he'd be more than willing to answer any questions and chat with me.

I'm still in a daze. A doctorate in expressive arts therapy? I walked away from my doctoral studies and here they are again, raising multiple heads like the hydra - one enticing, one terrifying, one intriguing, one distracting. I have no idea whatsoever whether I will persue this. But the entire evening helped me to expand my vision of my future and myself. Here are some of the things I learned:

• I was absolutely thrilled to be welcomed and encouraged
• The experience made me think bigger about what I'm capable of
• I started to imagine my work with a more international scope
• I envisioned myself travelling
• It reminded me that I would like to do work around non-violence
• It reminded me to keep art in my life on a regular basis

And in watching Stephen being celebrated as he comes up to his 70th birthday, I had a vision of how I would like to celebrate mine. He was in the studio of the school he and his wife founded, surrounded by people who have been touched by his work. There was a sharing of ideas and art and everyone created something together. I hope one day to celebrate my birthday surrounded by my tribe and sharing our talents and our loves. That's one vision for the future I'm holding onto.